Alone At World's End
by Nanaki BH
Summary: Seto/Crow - An indeterminable amount of time has passed. Now Seto looks to retrieve a friend and companion he lost along the way.


**Disclaimer: **_Fragile Dreams _and all related characters and material are property of Namco Bandai.  
**Notes: **Written for 154. "Unfinished tale" at 500themes. I swap in and out of present and past tense all over and I'm pretty sure I'm doing it right. I decided to be a little experimental. I had an image in my mind and no real idea where I was going with it, so maybe this will get another part.

Alone at World's End  
By: Nanaki BH

He can't stop wondering about what the human heart looks like. The thing that beats in his chest – is it red like the blood in his veins? How big is it? How does it look when it beats? Is it anything like the pictures he's seen in books? No matter the questions, he hopes that it's beautiful. Through the places he's been and over the miles he's traveled, he knows that the most beautiful things are always the hardest to reach. This thing in his chest that's so close and never able to be physically held in one's grasp must then be more beautiful than anything else he's ever seen.

Seto's seen what's inside of them now. Their outsides were clammy and tacky to the touch, their joints rusted and frail. There was a horrible smell when he sunk his knife into them to open them up to see what was inside. A kind of apprehension had come over him when he did that, like he didn't want to know what was in them because knowing would make him wonder if _he_ was the same, but he had to. For Crow, he had to.

There were about fifteen he found and opened. It became easier with each one to sink his knife in and find the parts that would give way to the blade, but it never got easier to make his hand do it. Some must have been submerged in water because their skin felt puffy and thick. They were a little harder to cut through. It took a few tries on the first one until he figured out where he had to be cutting. Right over the chest, there was a place where his fingers sunk in and he felt around until he knew to make a three-sided square in the center of the chest.

In the first fourteen, the battery inside was damaged in one fashion or another. More often than not, they had simply corroded or been damaged by water or sustained the impact of falling rocks from the ceiling. An earthquake had probably forced a cave-in. His search came to an end after hours uncounted when he finally opened one up to find the battery inside unharmed and intact.

Fortunately, he had found Crow where he had left him. Back then, carrying him would have been a ridiculous consideration. He had to leave him. There had to be many things Seto had to leave behind; many useful things and many precious things, including him. When he knelt down next to him and shined his flashlight upon him, he looked nothing more than asleep, his expression soft and delicate, his face just as youthful as Seto remembered.

Time had stood still only for him and continued to move on around him. The building became a frail and hazardous place, full of more perils than before. Now, he believes that his decision to return for him was the right one, despite the effort it took to reach him.

Without him, he would alone now.

He feels some hesitation. Holding the battery in his hands, he worries about what will happen. There's no worth in not trying at all, especially after going through such lengths to retrieve one, but the apprehension Seto feels is as weighty as the battery. It doesn't have a pulse; no beat to tell him if it's alive. Should he open his friend's chest to find him as hollow as the other dolls, he knows it will be an image that he'll likely never be able to remove from his mind. There's no guarantee that it will work. There's no guarantee for how long it will last even if it does.

Once he had made it out of the dam, he had kept walking until he returned to a river. He stopped only twice on the way. Although Crow was heavy, he found his weight to be reassuring rather than tiring. Upon reaching the river, he laid him down, removed his old and dirtied garments, and set to cleaning him. There was something chore-like about it; dragging a cloth along each of his arms and down his legs like he was a dusty fixture that needed to be maintenanced. Yet Seto still found his eyes straying from him in embarrassment as if he were trying to respect his privacy, even if he knew he couldn't see him looking.

The knife feels too heavy. While his brain recognizes that Crow is a _thing _that he can't hurt, this thing is _Crow_ to him.

He sits beside him for hours, unable to do anything. Nothing comes by the river; no dogs or birds or even cats. Alone, he feels worthless.

At the point that the sun is shining its strongest, he starts to worry about what staying still with him for too long could mean. He can't fight off something that attacks if he's trying to carry him. He won't be able to put him down to defend himself because then Crow would be left open – and if _he_ couldn't tell that he wasn't human, then neither would flesh-craving beasts.

Ripping the battery out of the chest of the last doll took him no more than a minute to do. Doing the same thing again, only in reverse, couldn't possibly take him that much longer. That's what he reasons as he lifts his hand. The knife catches the light of the sun and it bounces off the edge. It's clean now, but he had to wash off the grease and rubbery plastic bits from it when he reached the river. Taking a deep breath, forcing back the sudden feeling of sickness, he puts the edge of the knife against Crow's chest.

Just to be sure, he feels his skin with his other hand to know he's in the right place. He's had good practice, though. Now he applies it, dragging it down low enough where he feels the surface separate from the cavity below and gives the three-sided cut that the others required. It opens without any resistance, so he lifts the layer back and releases the hatch underneath. Beneath, Crow's old battery looks no more damaged than the one he pulled from the last doll. That doesn't bolster his confidence in the life of the "new" one, but at least the space itself looks clean and undamaged.

The old one is taken out and the new one is set in its place. It makes a sound as it clicks in. Seto doesn't know if there's an 'on' button that he additionally has to press somewhere, so he waits.

He presses the layer of skin back in for now, unsure yet of whether or not anything worked. The battery could be dead, Crow's insides could be fried without any surface evidence, something else inside might be wrong – Seto's mind can't stop thinking of the possibilities. He just wishes that he could put his hand over his friend's chest and feel a beat there to tell him that he did a good job. But he knows that won't happen. There are few things left ticking.

So he puts a hand over his own chest, feels the beat, imagines the life underneath and puts his other hand over Crow's chest. The air around them is warm. As he closes his eyes, it's all he feels besides the light thumping against his palm.

There's barely any sound save for the wind that occasionally gusts past his ears. It feels nice, but it's also a tad too lonely. Even the cicadas have gone someplace else or vanished entirely. There's just the wind, every now and then a bird, and then the sudden intake of a breath – one that's not his own.

He opens his eyes and Crow's are open as well, staring directly up, right into the sky where the shine of his eyes reflects the sun. Seto panics and flails and finally puts his hands over Crow's face to shield him from ruining his eyes. For the few seconds that Crow closes his eyes again, Seto worries, but Crow turns his head a moment later and looks at him.

It's been so long, Seto feels like he's forgotten how to talk. He didn't even consider what he would say to him if (_"when"_, he tells himself) he came to. For so long, he didn't even speak out loud to himself. He knew that if he didn't then he might go insane, but talking to himself seemed to be speeding up that process faster, so he just didn't ever add his voice to the world's silence. It takes him a moment then, but he finally speaks.

"Crow." That feels like the right thing to say first after so long. "Are you... Are you alright? How do you feel?"

Crow's face is oddly expressionless. His mouth parts slightly and his eyelids blink with slowly measured, mechanical clicks. To Seto's relief, he watches as one of his hands are lifted. His movements seem weak and tentative as he tests the joints and carefully watches the way they move after their period of disuse. He moves the other hand, bends the fingers, makes a fist, then lefts them both back down to his sides. Again, he turns his head to look at Seto.

"Who are you?"

"I'm..." _What, _he thinks. He was his friend. He _is_ his friend and that was why he went back for him, but now he realizes that he never even considered the possibility that a new battery could reset his memory or that his memory was ruined to start with. He hadn't thought about it at all because why would he want to? But he tells him anyway, "I'm your friend."

With a calculated, robotic voice, Crow replies, "You are not my friend. I do not know you."

"But I am!" It frightens him to think that this could be a futile argument."I really am your friend, Crow."

"Crow," he repeats. "Crow," he says again and the name comes out sounding much less robotic and more like his friend. "I know that name. Crow... I'm Crow. What's your name?"

Seto finds himself able to breath a little easier when he notices that some warmth has returned to his eyes. "I'm Seto. You should remember me because we were friends. I met you while I was looking for a girl, don't you remember that?"

Crow's eyes search his face, but he frowns and shakes is head. "You don't look like anyone I know. If you're my friend, then prove it," he says with all the same petulance that Seto remembered from the first time they met back at the amusement park. Fortunately, he kept a reminder in his pocket the whole time; something small enough that he never had to let go of it – the ring. He never wore it only because he was too afraid of losing it.

He pulls it out and puts it in one of Crow's hands.

It takes him only an instant to recognize it and he shoots to put the small treasure in one of his own pockets before he realizes that he's without clothing. Wildly, he gropes around and flounders with his weakened limbs until Seto puts a pair of pants in his hands and forces him to calm down by putting a hand down on his chest.

And then he recalls that he still hasn't patched up the battery compartment's opening on his chest and that just adds to the things that worry him about the situation.

"C-Calm down," is all he can say at first until Crow manages to wrangle his uncooperative legs into each pantleg and gets himself zipped up. When Seto's confident that he can look back, he moves over to his own things and pulls out a medical kit and makes Crow lay back down. "I'm sorry that I haven't been able to explain much yet. I'm sure you're really confused right now and need some information, but you should just sit still for a second, okay? I... helped you out and cleaned you up after you... got hurt. Now I just need to fix up a, uh, cut on your chest here, okay?"

Crow nods, back to accepting his situation in the most calm and analytical of fashions. He patiently folds his hands over his stomach and waits as Seto works over his chest with a needle and thread to stitch him up. The area will probably never heal and Seto has no idea how the people who made him ever expected the dolls to get new batteries installed (maybe they didn't) but what he's done for him will have to be sufficient. He clips the end of the wire and puts his things away, then sits back.

"I remember the name 'Seto'," Crow admits, "but I don't don't remember ever giving something of mine to someone who looks like you." He fixes him with a skeptical look and his hand tightens around the skull-shaped ring in his pocket.

The disappointment he feels is immeasurable; it's just a lot. But he still knows that there has to be some way to jog his memory. He recalls the ring. Crow obviously remembers _himself_.

It suddenly clicks in Seto's head.

"Some time's gone by. Do you remember what Seto looked like? You know how people age. Well... Imagine what your Seto would look like if he looked a bit older."

Crow pauses in a really still way that's almost frighteningly inhuman. His eyes continue to blink and shift as his processes work to try to figure it out. In the list of ways Seto could describe Crow, he was nothing if not imaginative. There was clearly something in him that could work to _hope _and _dream_ and make him pursue goals like finding out who he really was, so he has to be able to imagine what Seto would look like older.

Then his eyes snap back up to Seto's face and he nods again swiftly. "Mm. I see."

Hope rises up in Seto's heart.

"But I'm not convinced. I don't believe you're the same Seto. The Seto I knew was my best friend. So what if you look a little like him and have the same name? You have to convince me more than that." Defiantly, he crosses his arms over his bare chest and looks the other way.

If Seto didn't know what was beneath the stitches in his chest, he finds himself again able to believe that Crow is a real person. Regardless of whether he remembers him or wants to remember him, this contact with him feels more human than anything he's felt for a long time; so much so that he has to brush the back of his wrist against the corners of his eyes to ward off the threat of tears. Now that he can move, his pale skin seems to be animated all over with life. Without his hat he even looks delicate and child-like.

After the moment stretches on for a little too long, Crow rolls over onto his side and boosts himself up on his elbow to stare at him, raising an eyebrow, quirking his mouth.

"Well?"

Maybe his head's tilted that way on purpose. Seto thinks he should find out.

He leans in. As he predicts, Crow doesn't move away as their mouths meet and he even closes his eyes at the touch.

"Well?" he asks back.

Crow grins with a wide, lop-sided smile. "I just had to be sure."

Despite how it sounds, there's a lot of relief to be had in the way he says it that makes Seto feel like he can finally start to breath a little easier. The battery is fine, it was put in correctly, Crow woke up without him having to fumble around for some hidden switch, and it looks like he remembers him as if it were just yesterday. Literally, as if it were yesterday... And that thought makes him worry because that means that he's going to have to inevitably explain to him what's been going on, why he had to return for him.

A crease appears between Crow's brow and he puts a finger to the same place on Seto's forehead to ease out a frown that he hasn't even realized he's been making. He laughs weakly and clasps Crow's hands in his own and the other moves himself up at last to sit in front of him.

"I guess I outta tell you that... I don't know how long this battery is going to last. I'm sure there'll be others someplace else if you need them, but the one I got from where you were last might not keep you going for too long."

He nods. "That's fine," he says. His hands slip from Seto's and he idly picks up his hat from nearby and dusts it off. "It's not like I feel anything when I'm off. It's just lights out." The cap shields his eyes when he looks down and speaks, but Seto can still tell that the emotions in his voice are real. Whatever he says, he knows that he doesn't enjoy being off. He doesn't like reminders of what he is. Seto wishes that he could steer as far from the subject as possible, but it's important that he say something about it, lest he shut down before he's prepared.

"I know it bothers you." Crow looks up instantly and before he can utter a word, Seto holds up a hand to make sure he doesn't speak. "I know. You're going to say that it doesn't. But... I thought it would be important to tell you because..."

Because he has to know.

He has to be prepared.

He wouldn't be able to protect him by himself.

He'd be. All alone.

There are arms around him before he even has a second to react and he's pulled tightly against Crow's chest. Now that he's been outside, his skin feels warm again and his hair feels soft against his cheek. He wraps his arms around him without any further thought, feeling overwhelmed just to be able to hold someone.

"Can I ask...? What happened to the girl you were looking for?"

For while, Seto doesn't respond, presses his head into Crow's shoulder instead.

He leans away from him, sniffs and rubs the back of his sleeve against his eyes, but keeps them averted.

"She's gone."

"Gone?"

Nods. "Yes, she. She's gone."

He can feel Crow's eyes on him but he doesn't look up. Even he has that power to make someone feel nervous when they know they're being watched. He's probably looking for some more details, waiting for him to say something more, but Seto leaves it at that. It's bad enough just to recall that much. She left him once. To find out what had happened to her made him wish he had never looked for her a second time.

"It's probably a good thing you came back and got me then."

"I was going to come back for you anyway."

"Even with her?" he asks.

Seto nods.

"Well... What are we going to do now? Do you still plan to find more people?"

He's only one small person. When he considers the grand size of the world, even the size of just one small city or town, it seems nearly impossible for him to find other people now. Even if they were to be in the same city as someone else, they may pass right by them without them even knowing unless they turned over every rock to be sure. It sounds daunting, impossible, but it also sounds like the last thing he really has left to do unless he wants to retire quietly to tending a garden for the rest of his life.

Now that he really has Crow back, that almost doesn't sound so bad. But seeing the eager look on his face reminds him that Crow is always up for adventure. Maybe with him it could be possible.

"You'll help me?" he says, trying not to sound as timid about it as he feels.

The second that Crow's lips quirk up into a smile, he knows that he didn't even have to ask.

"Of course, best friend! Like I'd leave you alone now."

Seto stands up and brushes the dirt and dust off the back of his pants, then offers a hand out to Crow who accepts it before he even thinks about what his legs are going to do. At first, he wobbles unsteadily and he totters back far enough on his heels that Seto's afraid he's going to tumble over backwards, so he reaches out quickly on reflex and grabs him by the elbows to keep him up. Overall, he's a lot lighter than he had expected. When he carried him before, he was sure that his weight was less than a regular person's. If he were any heavier, he may have ended up on top of him instead of helping.

Crow apologizes quickly and laughs, but he holds onto him a little longer just to make sure that his legs are really capable of carrying him. Once he bends the knees and tests the heels, it looks like everything is back to working the way it should. He stands with his arms akimbo in the way that's so familiar to Seto and it feels like that night all over again where they stood in the shadow of the ferris wheel, the moon overhead.

Except now there's the sun. It's hot and makes Seto sweat under the collar, but it feels significant, like the two of them are finally able to continue and escape from beneath the shadows they began under.

"We'll find them, won't we?"

Crow bends awkwardly, like he's standing on stilts, and picks up the rest of the clothes Seto has set out for him. He's grinning when he straightens up, seeming oblivious to any little impairment. "Yeah, of course you will!" he says like a promise. "Maybe they'll even find you first, you never know."

"Maybe we should make it our goal to find them first then."

"Sounds good, sounds good." He slides a shirt over his head and tugs on a vest and buttons it a moment later. "Your goal's my goal. I'll follow you everywhere."

"Good," he says. "Thank you, Crow."

Their destination is wherever they may find life. He has no map, but Seto no longer feels so lost.


End file.
